Early Treatment

Early treatment is when a younger patient, typically a child between 6 to 8, receives an orthodontic screening to see how their teeth and jaw bones are developing. The American Association for Orthodontics suggests that all children see an orthodontist by the time they are 7. At 7-years-old, permanent teeth have grown in enough to determine whether or not your child will need orthodontic work in the future. If we see there is an abnormal or misaligned structure in your child’s mouth, we can take preventative measures to correct it before it becomes a bigger problem.

Interceptive orthodontic work ensures the teeth and jaw develop properly as the child grows as their permanent teeth move into place. Though it is not a necessary procedure for every child, our orthodontists can tell you if your child needs early treatment or not. In general, it’s important to evaluate developing teeth because the sooner we can spot a potential problem, the sooner we can intervene and correct it.

Candidates for early orthodontic treatment are children who exhibit:

• Bruxism or grinding of teeth
• Underbite/overbite
• Excessively spaced teeth
• Extra teeth
• Thumb sucking
• Early loss of baby teeth
• Difficulty biting properly
• Malocclusion

There are many different kinds of early orthodontic treatment that can be prescribed besides braces for kids in Saginaw & Frankenmuth. In fact, there are numerous devices that assist with the movement of teeth, changing jaw positioning, as well as devices that hold their teeth in place while waiting for other areas to move into their proper position. Some other forms of early treatment may involve removing baby teeth to help permanent teeth erupt with more space.

Overall, orthodontic problems are much easier to correct if they are found and treated early. Not to mention, early intervention can also, sometimes, reduce the amount of treatment your child will need later. Important problems to observe from ages 6 to 8 are crowded teeth, abnormal eruption, and crossbites.

Waiting until all of your child’s permanent teeth have come in, or until facial growth is nearly complete, may make correction of some problems more difficult and more costly.

Our orthodontists can determine whether or not an early orthodontic treatment is necessary. For some cases, early orthodontic treatment can adjust their bite better than adult orthodontics because their teeth are still developing and are easier to reposition. If you’re interested in having an orthodontic screening for your child, reach out to us so that we can schedule it.